Medical Center researchers speak at AAAS

STANFORD -- Presentations by Stanford Medical Center researchers at this
year's AAAS meeting ranged from the cellular to the sociopolitical - from the
workings of brain cells to the career barriers facing women in science and
medicine.

Eric Knudsen, professor of neurobiology, discussed research results
showing that in barn owls - and probably in people - the brain creates maps
of space to help figure out where sounds are coming from.

"Every time the owl hears a sound from a certain location in space, that
sound activates cells in a particular portion of the brain's map of space,"
said Knudsen.

The brain continually refines its maps based on what the animal hears and
sees, Knudsen said.

Dr. Frances Conley, professor of neurosurgery, moved discussion from the
micro realm to the macro: interpersonal relationships on university and
medical school campuses. Using examples from her own career - beginning when
she was in medical school in the '60s, when women "were treated like pretty
little pieces of fluff," she said - Conley discussed the ramifications of
role stereotyping and the effect it has on producing further barriers to
professional success.

Although it doesn't constitute legally defined sexual harassment, role
stereotyping is probably the most important barrier to career advancement
encountered by women in science because it is subtle, adopted unconsciously
and perpetuated by society at large, said Conley.

Also at the meeting:

Dr. Kenneth Melmon, professor of clinical pharmacology, argued that
trendy medicated patches are an ideal delivery system for some - but not all
- medicines. Since the adhesive patches are so popular with consumers, drug
companies sometimes produce medicines in patch form without sufficient regard
to their medical value, Melmon said.

Some drugs - such as estrogen, used for osteoporosis, and scopolamine,
used for vertigo - pass through the skin easily and are especially effective
when absorbed that way, he noted. But other drugs - such as nitroglycerin,
used to treat angina pectoris - are ineffective when delivered by a patch
for protracted periods, Melmon said.

Melmon suggested that drug companies should chemically alter certain drugs
that balk at the skin barrier, to allow them to slip through the skin more
easily. Though an expensive research and development effort, this could have
great medical value, Melmon said.

Melmon has served as a member of the scientific advisory board for Alza
Corp., the first U.S. pharmaceutical company to market a drug administered
transdermally.

Parvati Dev reviewed the use of imaging technology combined with
three-dimensional software to create prosthetics individually tailored to the
people who will wear them. Radiological images - such as computerized
tomography scans - reveal an individual's anatomy with all its peculiarities,
allowing prosthesis makers to create better-fitting artificial body parts,
noted Dev, a senior research engineer with the Stanford University Medical
Media and Information Technology group.

Members of a panel, including biostatistics Professor Emeritus Lincoln
Moses, discussed an ongoing demonstration project evaluating a seldom-used
provision allowing judges to call in their own scientific experts to sort out
the often contradictory claims made by defendants' and plaintiffs' experts.
Moses' role is to design the study so that researchers can draw statistically
significant conclusions.

Dr. Mark Musen, assistant professor of medicine, discussed a computer
system under development that would give caregivers detailed advice about
treating AIDS patients. Such a system would help keep track of treatment
protocols that can be very complicated - involving experimental treatments
and multiple drug regimens for various AIDS-related illnesses. As the number
of cases pushes more AIDS care out of the hands of AIDS specialists, the new
system could become increasingly valuable, he said.

Musen said he and his colleagues have nearly completed the first phase of
the project: developing a "user friendly" electronic system that keeps
records on AIDS patients by storing the information in a data base format.
Information storage in a data base format is necessary to reach the group's
ultimate goal: enlisting computers to analyze AIDS patients' records and to
suggest individualized treatment.

Stephen J. Smith, associate professor of molecular and cellular
physiology, ran a videotape showing nerve cells and astrocytes growing and
sending signals to each other. Smith uses a device called a laser confocal
microscope to tape cellular events within living tissues.

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